Monday, May 23, 2011

Obama at AIPC

US president Barack Obama spoke at AIPC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] annual meeting on Sunday 22 May 2011. The chattering classes smelled blood as Obama entered the powerful Israeli lobby's den. The American presence managed to don the cloak of a Daniel, and in his own oratorical way, 'charmed' the lions who thirsted for his flesh.Obama did it, not by backing down on his publicly calling for a recognition of the 1967 borders as a negotiating point for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to delineate a Palestinian state with defensible borders for Israel--whatever that means. In other words, he took Israeli premier's words and fashioned them to his own purposes.Let Israel and the Palestinians work out a future Palestine through land swaps without talking about Arab east Jerusalem, among other glaring omissions.The US president is a master of words but we suggest our readers look at the Al Jazeera documents which revealed the duplicity of Israeli negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to give in to every Zionist demand which always added another condition, and the central role that US pressure played in twisting Abu Mazam or Mahmoud Abbas arms to 'say Uncle!'. And yet, Israel was never satisfied for in truth it was negotiating not only from a position of strength but one of utter rejection of any agreement short of its gobbling up as much of the West Bank for a Greater Israel.The Al Jazeera dossier had the momentary effect of a bombshell in the way Wikileaks release of US diplomatic cables. Yet owing to the feckless media Israel's security and defence take centre whilst the Palestinians' rights remain underreported if not ignored.Still by brining up the centrality of the 1967 borders which the International Court of Justice affirmed as inalienably the right of the Palestinian state, Obama try as he might cannot shunt aside the court's verdict. Palestinians have rights which no American president nor Israeli premier nor any lobby can erase. Obama's tack is a desperate ploy to rescue it's client state from its own self, from isolation which its policies are driving the Zionist state, and ultimately staying its hand for beginning yet another war which it is not certain to win on the playing fields of world diplomacy and will brand it with the mark of a pariah state. Such are the American president's worries, for the US total support of Israel in the wake of the 'Arab spring' is quickly eroding its influence in the Middle East.